Cynarctus

Cynarctus
Temporal range: Middle Miocene–Late Miocene
Cynarctus Skull
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Subfamily: †Borophaginae
Tribe: †Borophagini
Subtribe: †Cynarctina
Genus: †Cynarctus
Matthew, 1902
Type species
†Cynarctus saxatilis
Species
  • "C, acridens", Barbour and Cook 1914
  • C. crucidens, Barbour and Cook 1914
  • "C. fortidens", Hall "et al." 1962
  • C. galushai, Wang et al. 1999
  • C. marylandica, Berry 1938
  • C. saxatilis, Matthew 1902
  • C. voorhiesi, Wang wt al. 1999
  • C. wangi, Jasinski & Wallace 2015

Cynarctus is an extinct genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids native to North America. The genus was first founded by W. D. Matthew in 1901, based from a pair of lower jaws, Cynarctus saxitilis, found in the Pawnee Creek Beds of Colorado.[1] It lived during the Middle to Late Miocene 16.0—10.3 mya, existing for approximately 5.7 million years.[2] Fossils have been uncovered in Colorado, California, Maryland, western Nebraska, and Texas. It was likely an omnivore, and lacked the bone-cracking adaptations found in some later borophagines.[3] Newer findings have proved the genus to be described as a large dog-like raccoon, a result from combining characteristics from Canidae with Procyonidae.[4]

  1. ^ Barbour, Erwin; Cook, Harold (1 January 1914). "TWO NEW FOSSIL DOGS OF THE GENUS CYNARCTUS FROM NEBRASKA". Conservation and Survey Division. 4.
  2. ^ Paleobiology Database: Cynartus
  3. ^ Wang, Xiaoming; Tedford, Richard H. (2008). Dogs, Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. Columbia. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-231-13528-3.
  4. ^ McGrew, Paul O. (1937). "The Genus Cynarctus". Journal of Paleontology. 11 (5): 444–449. ISSN 0022-3360. JSTOR 1298460.